Doncaster Athletic Club to host British League meeting on Saturday

Steve Hossack

Doncaster will host British Men’s League athletics for the first time at the Keepmoat Stadium complex on Saturday, writes Steve Hossack.

Doncaster Athletic Club take on Derby & Mansfield, Rugby & Northampton, City of Portsmouth, Brighton & Hove and Reading in the final Division Four fixture of the season.

The club go into the fixture propping up the table after a testing debut season at national league level.

They are hoping to finish above Reading to avoid the wooden spoon.

But with several athletes preferring to compete in a Northern League meeting on the same day, and others either injured or unavailable, the club face another battle to avoid finishing bottom for the third consecutive meeting.

“We’ll have a stronger team than in recent meetings because of the fact that it’s a home fixture and we’ll be hoping to give it a good go,” said chairman Kev Lincoln.

“When we are at full strength then we are capable of competing against clubs like ourselves.

“But we’ve never been able to turn our best team out.

“Unfortunately we haven’t got the strength in depth at this moment in time to compete with the composite teams who can draw from more than one club which is an obvious advantage.”

He added: “Being in the British League has also put a lot of pressure on team manager Terry Winmill, who has done a marvellous job, not least because each home team has to put the meeting together with the officials and everything else.

“We’ll sit down at the end of the season and review the situation and see whether we are going to go ahead with a team in the league next season.

“It’s all about trying to get the balance of the club right.

“You don’t want to be putting too much pressure on the athletes we’ve got because they can only do so much, similarly with the team management.”

Saturday’s meeting starts at 1pm and spectators are welcome.

There is no admission charge.

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